This afternoon's rally at Five Corners begins at 2 p.m. on the final day of registration for the Nov. 3 election.
Islanders lined up at the polls today to cast ballots in a presidential election that has riveted and divided the country.
Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Polling places are Aquinnah town offices, the Chilmark Community Center, the Edgartown town hall, the Oak Bluffs public library, the American Legion Hall in Vineyard Haven, and the West Tisbury public safety building.
Vineyard voters go to the polls Tuesday to cast ballots in the 2012 presidential election. And while the big draw is the race for president and large turnouts are expected here as elsewhere, Vineyard voters will also makes choices on a host of other state and local issues, from a close Massachetts Senate race to the Martha’s Vineyard Commission to medical marijuana.
What was once a conservative enclave has given way to a reliable liberal stronghold. And the place where Franklin D. Roosevelt reportedly earned the respect of Islanders (if not their votes) by caring more for his boat than he did for electioneering is now known as the summer vacation spot for presidents whose ice cream shop visits and golf games make headlines.
As around the country, the political landscape of Martha’s Vineyard is ever shifting.
Chilmark voters elected a new selectman, pledged money for studying town ponds and approved a hefty budget hike at the annual town meeting and election this week.
Voters elected real estate agent and Chilmark Store owner Bill Rossi for a three year term to the board of selectmen on Wednesday. Mr. Rossi won with 186 votes. He succeeds longtime selectman Frank Fenner, who did not seek reelection after four terms. A late write-in campaign by Alan Porter earned him 54 votes.
Vineyard voters will go to the polls to cast ballots in unusually close elections at the federal, state and local levels on Tuesday.
The closest of them, and one of the hottest contests in the nation, is the race for the 10th congressional district which includes the Cape and Islands. The most recent polling puts the seat, vacant due to the retirement of Democratic Cong. William Delahunt, as too close to call.
Vineyard voters stood decisively for Democratic candidate and state attorney general Martha Coakley in Tuesday’s special election, but it was Republican state Sen. Scott Brown who staged an unexpected surge to win the U.S. Senate Seat left vacant by the death of liberal leader Edward M. Kennedy.
Statewide, voters split 52 per cent to Mr. Brown, 47 per cent to Ms. Coakley.
